Method of treating ores.



UNITED STATES IQEQ CHARLES A. DIEHL AND WILLIAM KoEnLna. OF CLEVELAND,oino.

METHOD OF TREATING ones.

Specification of Letters Patent.

: atentetl Jan. 22, 1907.

Application filed March 28,1906. Serial No. 308,550.

.To. @ZZ, whom it may concern:

.Be it known that we, CHARLES A. DIEHL and WILLIAM KoEnLEn, citizens of,the

' United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga andState of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvcy thefollowing is a specification.

This invention is a method of treating ores,

ject of the invention being to so prepare the materials that theleaching may be effected economically and with the production ofcomparatively pure metal-bearing solution, art or all of the chlorincombined with the 4 ase metals of the ore being recovered as scribed asapplied to an. ore of nickel, the prech orin or hydrochloric acid andutilizrd as desired By wayof example the method will be llC- ferredprocezlure being as follows: The ore, which may contain'nickel,magnesium, aluminium, and iron, withor without gangue, is firstchloridizezl by known methods in error i to effect the more or lesscomplete conver.-.

.chloridized ore is then placed in a The orum or other vessel suitablefor mixing and heating sion of the several metalsintoehlor 5 1ml issubjected therein at a suitable. temerature to the action of oxygen,whirlinmy lie supplied either in a-free state, as air, or in combinationwith hydrogen, as water or steam. The temperature should be below thepoint of decomposition of the chlorid of the metal or metals to berecovered in the present instance nickelbut above the point the chlorinmay be driven off, leaving as a residue the. corresponding oxychlorid.In case a sufficiently high temperature is used and air is employed forefi'ecting the decom- -5o position-the reaction results in theproduction of the. oxids ofthe base metals and the liberation ofchlorin? and proce'eds according' to Equation-- 17 wlireas jin presenceof the vapor of water hydrochloric acid is set free fments in Methods ofTreating Ores, of which .mattes, concentrates, and other metallurgi- 1cal products preparatory to leaching, the ob with forma tion of theoxids of as shown. in Equation 2.

If a mixture of air and water-vapor be cmpleyei, the two teneously l amixture of chlorin and hydroehloric as will be evolved. The chlorin orhydrochloric acid so produced may be utilized for ehloridizing furtherquantities of ore.

It will be noted that the specific ore above the base metals,

tions will occur simul' referred to contains, in addition to nickel, a

divalent metal (magnesium) and a trivalent metal, (alum nium or iron,)and such mixturcjs found in practice to be highly advantageous, herenafter more fully explained.

In the equations, M is employed. as representing any of the divalentmetals-magnesium, zinc, barium, calcium, strontium, or others alliedtheieto-and M represents a trivalent metal of the type which includesiron, aluminium, and chromium. The chlorids of the trivalent metals arenot easily completely decomposed by oxygen; but we have found that suchdecomposition occursreadily and with substantial completeness inpresence oi the chlorids or ()X1(lS of the divalent metals. For thisreason if one or Inoreinetals of the divalent group are not alreadypresent in the ore "it is preferably added thereto. Under suchconditions and .at'a suitable temperature, which in the speeifiminstancedescribed 'will be below a red heat, there occurs a combinationbetweenthe-oxide of the divalent and trivalent groups.

forming double oxidsoi' the "general type MO,M Q.,, which are relativelystable compounds and are onlyyery slowly soluble in the water or dilutehydrochloric or sulfuric acid employed in the subsequent leaching.

Their solubility is further deoreasedby heating in presence ofhydrochloric acid or chlorin such as occurs in the practice ofthe methodabove described. Furthermore, the physi 0511 state of the resultingmaterial is-suchas to permit the rapid andsubst'antially complete'extractionnf the nickel by leaching with water orfpreferably, withdilute acid.

: No injurious effect follows from the presence of anexcess of divalentoxid, since any oxid 0r hydroxid of nickel which might be precipitatedthereby is readily soluble in the dilute leaching-acid. The solutionobtained by leaching may be further purified and the metal recovered byknown methods.

As a further specific example of our method we will describe itsapplication to snlfid ores containing iron and zinc, the ironexisting-in the ore in the ferrous condition. Such ores are cnloridizedby suitable meth ods to convert both iron and zinc into chloride and arethereafter roasted in'an oxidizing atmosphere to decompose the chloridof iron.

The roasted ore contains ferric oxid and zinc chlorid, of which thelatter may be extracted by leaching, as above described.

The advantages of our improved. method are obvious. The temperaturerequired is always below the decomposing point of the chlorid of themeta. or metals to be recovered, which presents a decided. econonrv overmethods involving the calcination of ores; The column coincontainingtalc or clay. bined with. the base metals is largely recovered in a formavailable for immediate use. The oxidized residues remaining are onlyvery slowly soluble in the usual leaching liquids, whereby metal-bearingsolutions are obtained which are but slightly contaminated by thebase-metal ehlor is, and ores which; owing to their content of clay orother finelydivid'ed matter, could be leached with dilliculty areconverted into a physical condition which greatly facilitates thisoperation.

e claim-- 1.. The method of treating ores containing metals whosechlorids are decomposed under oxidizing conditions at substantiallydiffer ent temperatures, which consists in fully chloridizing the ore,and then heating the chloridized ore under oxidizing conditions to atemperature suflicient to decompose the more readily decomposablechlorids with evolution of chlorin or hydrochloric aciu,

while leaving the chlorid of the remaining.-

metal or metals substantially undecomposed,

substantially as described.

2. The method of treating ores. containin metals-whose chlorids' aredecomposed under.

oxidizing conditions at substantially d'ifien,

ent temperatures, which consists in rirst'cone verting the metals of theore into chloride;

and their heating the chloridized ore in the presence of waterapor toa-t'einperature composable chlcrids, while leaving the chlorid of theremaining metal or metals substantially undecoinposed, substantially asdescribed. I

3. The method of treating ores containing nickel, togetherwith'metals'whose chloride are more readily decomposed under oxidizingconditions than nickelchlorid,"which consists 5 sufliclent to decomposethenio're rcadily des 4. 1 The method of treating ores containingdivalent and trivalent metals, which consists,

in fully chloridizing the ore and then heating the ore under oxidizingconditions to a temporaturc suflicient' to eflect the decomposition 111'the more readily decomposable chlorids and the formation of an oxidizedcompound. while leaving the chlorid of the re-- maining metal or metalssubstantially undecoinposed, substantially as describedv In testimonywhereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES A. DIEHL. WILLIAM KOEHLE R. "Vitnesses:

(Inas. E. BAKER, D. H. PONDQ.

